Best Track on The Fall - The Infotainment Scan

One of the covers.

prob true, although Paranoia Man in Cheap Sh*t Room is classic. Dunno why I didn't investigate more Fall after I got this.

"why are people grudgeful"

Although, isn't it a Lee Scratch Perry song?

I voted for Service.

The covers are good, but not *that* good.

But Service is a wonderful track. The intro is just incredible.

"Why do you have a cloud in your eye?" Da-da da DAR DAR da-da da DAR DAR

Some of Smith's best lyrics too.

Time of the vulperines, time of the wolverines.

OPERATION MINDFUCK

My first Fall album. MEEEEEEEEMMMMOOAAAAHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! ALLALOOOOOOOOOONE INNNA MOOOOOOONLIIIIIIIIITE!

glam racket

but, I'm not a huge fan of this album for some reason

Permanent did in six months what Phonogram couldn't manage in three years, put our album in the Top Ten....

Funny, no album since got into the top 20!

Actually, the 'hit' had more to do with Radio 1 briefly expanding it's playlist to incorporate more Peel friendly bands. John did daytime shows for a bit, "Behind the counter" made the a-list, etc.

Did not last.

Behind the Counter was awesome.

i'm going to spain is practically a cover of felt's riding on the equator isn't it?

"A Past Gone Mad"

It's practically a cover of Steve Bent's "I'm going to Spain"

check the Kenny Everett "worst records ever" LP.

ooops.

i don't actually have this album (it marked the beginning of my idiotic losing-interest-in-the-fall thing in the 1990s, principally because i wanted everything to sound like code: selfish and it didn't). so i'm not going to vote -- but obviously "why are people grudgeful" is a thing of FUCKING GENIUS.

I include "Grudgeful" in the list of covers. But I voted "I'm Going to Spain" in the end. Infotainment came out when I was having a rough time, and that song more than any of the others managed to cheer me up and sum up everything that was wrong all at once.

Which is pretty much what The Fall do.

this is my favorite fall album

"why is peter gabriel always following us?"

PARANOIA MAN

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Paranoia Man, by a long length.

Service might be the best but A Past Gone Mad is the prototype for this album.

Glam Racket but Lost in Music & Paranoia give it a close run. i love this album.

not sure how i feel about League Moon Monkey Mix

There is little music better than walking around in shitty NZ approaching-winter rain than "Service". Least boshing/uplifting house rip (the piano! horns!) ever!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Ladybird was robbed, great opener.

Haha victory

peel and 27 pts Ladybirds heavier imho

The only Fall album I've ever really liked

Permanent did in six months what Phonogram couldn't manage in three years, put our album in the Top Ten....

-- William Bloody Swygart, Sunday, 4 May 2008 19:13 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

Hmm!

I feel ILM is somehow responsibe for this turnaround in fortune!

i'm going to spain is practically a cover of felt's riding on the equator isn't it?

As I've been going through the Fall's discography, I've more than once been reminded of Felt, and have also been struck by the rarity of Felt comparisons in talking about M.E.S.

well felt did open for the fall in their early stages iirc.

"Ladybird" or "Service." What a great band this lineup was!

I stand by my lone vote for "It's A Curse", this whole album is tops though.

orig. 'I'm Going To Spain':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL1jj1nJzwQ

Orig is on: http://s.dsimg.com/image/R-1829531-1246218612.jpeg

Lots of different studio takes of Lost In Music, Glam Shite, etc.

surprised Ladybird didn't get votes

this album rules so hard

proud to be the only voter for "It's A Curse"

yeah this one rules

ha I see I said that 14 years ago

every good Fall fan should have had at least 20 "favorite" Fall albums over the years, this is my favorite now

Curse is great

Boggles my mind that multiple major labels tried to market the Fall

every good Fall fan should have had at least 20 "favorite" Fall albums over the years

totally otm

"Glam Racket" is the best track but the Peel version with Brix.

yeah that's so good

Bill Is Dead and Telephone Thing are A+

woops wrong album

they do rule, also "Hilary"

with that daft African pop/and that wine that you call bull's blood/Hilary uh oh Hilary

my personal fave of this period is Shift-Work, just to add to the diversity of opinion here ;)

― vague facial gymnastics (sleeve), 04 February 2026 23:35 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

This was the first Fall album I listened to. I was about 15/16..I was a bit dissapointed at first as it just sounded a bit 'clean' and quite poppy albeit with MES's strange vox. I love it now though. "Edinburgh Man", one of the loveliest (yes thats right) Fall tunes. Quite like the fiddle on this lineup of The Fall too especially on tracks like "The war against intelligence".

Edinburgh Man rules

Used to (probably) be my favourite band, I've certainly seen them live more than any other. "Kurious Oranj" was the last album I bought on release(!) and "Extricate" the last album I've actually heard (didn't like it at all).

Exactly the same trajectory for me. When MES died, I started to relisten to the post-Bend Sinister albums in order of release, hoping that they would finally click. But each time I found my attention wandering off after a couple of tracks, which isn't a reaction that I thought I'd ever have with The Fall.

*high five*

The Frenz Experiment was a definite disappointment after Bend Sinister but I always found Kurious Oranj pretty entertaining.

My original timeline started with "How I wrote Elastic Man", and kept up with the singles, mostly. Oh, "Totale's Turns" was hugely on my turntable.

LPwise, started with the Beggars Banquet albums - actually cassettes, as they were longer and mostly the definition of whichever album it was. (plus I was doing a lot of driving).

Then they signed with Fontana, and I moved to CDs, "Extricate" great, "Bend Sinister" pretty good and "Shift-Work" mostly OK.

I sort of stopped for a while, too much other things going on I guess, but got the occasional single - "Chiselers" amazed me, the long version particularly.

Back on board for "Levitate" and "Marshall Suite", then another layoff up to "Your Future Our Clutter" which was the glorious fall back on board (I think Domino kicked the album back for more work, which you 'don't do' but on the one hand it worked, and on the other Mark was off after that)...

Since then, been filling in the gaps. Must i get them all? Well, I'm close enough to completion....

this thread revive prompted me to look on Youtube to see if the first time I saw the Fall was on there (Phoenix festival 1996) and some of the audio is there. I don't think I'd ever heard any of their music before I saw them, I just knew the name from the NME/Melody Maker and thought I'd check them out. I remember really liking one of the songs but never figured out which one it was, but after listening to the set I think it was probably The Chiselers

“Pink Floyd are short”

The Chiselers was my entry point for The Fall, heard it on Peel and bought the 7", which I still own

I have been going through all the bona-fide The Fall albums, from "Live at the Witch Trials" up to "Code Selfish" so far.

I do have all of them, but on the odd occasion I have gone to Spotify because "Wonderful and Frightening" is in a deluxe box as the LP version, and I grew up with the cassette/CD track listing. Similar, "Extricate"

Bits I'd forgotten about is how musical the Fontana albums were for the most part.

Anyway, "Infotainment Scan" is next....

Yeah Extricate has to be the best produced (in a conventional sense) -- for example "Chicago Now" with the horns -- of all Fall albums.

Maybe, but they’re all pretty nice production wise up through Middle Class Revolt. Going backwards, Frenz is nice also.

how musical the Fontana albums were

Totally agree with this, btw

revive inspired me to look up Grant Showbiz production credits and this can't be right? no credits between Slates and Shift-work??

https://www.discogs.com/artist/249748-Grant-Showbiz?superFilter=Production

Yeah iirc that's correct. I think he was always doing stuff on-and-off for the band -- live sound etc. -- just not always actually producing.

I always had it in my mind that he produced Wonderful/Nations/ etc during their classic era

Those first three Beggars albums were all John Leckie.

"Infotainment Scan" i liked a lot..

I got off t'bus with "Middle Class Revolt" as the two singles (two four track cds for #1 and a 3 track 10" for #2) seemed to cover the majority of the album. Hearing it now, I can see why it didn't much go over at the time - it certainly didn't make the top ten!

"Cerebral Caustic" had no singles taken from/for it, but with Brix making contributions and so forth, I liked it a lot. And up to nowish, it's the first Fall album I don't have previous with. Great stuff though. And I do like the more experimental stuff like "Bonkers in Phoenix"

When back from hols, "Light User Syndrome" is up next, it looks like an old ELO LP...

the first 2/3 of light user is the most rockin’ since this nation’s and hilarious to boot. he pep topped the fallnet annual “best fall song of the last five years” poll for a couple years back in the 90s so you should listen to that one twice.

middle class revolt, yeah it was dismissed due to a lot of it being in the singles and then having more filler than usual. like the third monks cover was perhaps misguided and nothing new. but if you just think of it as a cobbled together cd the first half is tremendous, and city dweller is one of si’s best drum performances, probably the best “the fall imitate the happy mondays imitating the fall” you could hope for.

i really love the guitar tracks on Middle Class Revolt: The Reckoning is rather languid and beautiful imo, and Not Up To Much, grinding, dreary and propulsive.

i very much liked the Cab Driver version of City Dweller released on one of the two Behind the Counter EPs. Oh and Behind the Counter itself is *frosty* - it's the synths. delightful.

always like pascal le gras' artwork too.

both the john peel session version and the extremely propulsive phoenix festive version of behind the counter are worth listening to imo.

this all continuing from the infotainment scan obsession with the service industry ofc, which reminds that me that Service is a beautiful autumnal Fall track.

The thing about this version of the Fall is that it really went back to Hanley and Scanlon in the Dragnet-era band. They were interesting because they evolved so much and their evolution was, generally speaking, fun and enjoyable. I guess there are records here and there through the years that were somewhat of a holding pattern. I do think they got into one around this time. Middle Class Revolt felt like that to me. I agree with Mark that Cerebral Caustic turned it around via Brix, but then Scanlon is gone and pretty soon Hanley is gone and then...

yeah i’m not sure about this view tbh. i know what you mean but equally i felt like each LP was like a psychic or spiritual news report on the times. this period - shift-work to cerebral caustic seemed to me to be their brechtian period. that is roughly that this was their “before the grub comes the moralist” phase, a line repeated across tracks and albums, plus ladybird (green grass) ofc. it’s the beginning of an obsession with the ersatz and a feeling this combines with the service and financial industries. it’s *sort of* a marxist phase?

Musically, it's my favorite period (although probably going back to The Frenz Experiment). What a great band.

on reflection, mark e is still bringing his a game on 2-3 songs per album in this period except for middle class and light user, so i feel both are musically quite strong in the first half and half the second, but there’s no standout lyric like free range, bill is dead, ladybird, feeling numb, etc. levitate is much spottier musically but some of his vocals and lyrics there are so strange and arresting.

after levitate we’re in late period fall where to me it’s just pleasant burnout deadend garage psych but they are no longer the most important band in the world (or rather i was too jaded to worship a single band)

Well, I was on and off the bus from this point, and from what I heard of "New Facts Emerge" it (or, he) sounded like what people who do not like the fall were hearing.

But, I'm not there yet so..

Well, I was on and off the bus from this point, and from what I heard of "New Facts Emerge" it (or, he) sounded like what people who do not like the fall were hearing.

But, I'm not there yet so..

echo...

mig put my feelings about “21st century Fall” well. But what a run from 77-97 or so. most bands could only wish for a run that long

For real

of late period albums New Facts Emerge is one of my favourites, but i’ll wait to comment when you get to it, Mark! (i’ll need to refresh my own memory)

this was their “before the grub comes the moralist” phase, a line repeated across tracks and albums, plus ladybird (green grass) ofc. it’s the beginning of an obsession with the ersatz and a feeling this combines with the service and financial industries. it’s *sort of* a marxist phase?

This is a good way of thinking about it, the negative end of the spectrum would be Mark casting round for material and doing the old "let's have a look at what's in the papers today" bit. The lonely guy reading the Telegraph in the pub at lunchtime years

That's not at all meant to be as backhanded as it might read

The Fall s CNN for aging drunks

Tbf I think there was always an "issue of the week" element to Mark's lyrics, it's just that they disappear like ephemera the further back in time you go

the target of “make joke records with Garry Bushell” lost to time

Was that his "Gal and the Gonads" stuff?

https://www.discogs.com/release/1772933-Max-N-Gal-The-Brothers-Gonad-Delilah-The-Punk-EPic-

Maybe this one, maybe he expected more from Max Splodge, I dunno...

I think Light User Syndrome is one of the best Fall albums. Maybe a bit long but any album that has Spinetrack and He Pep has to rank very high. Plus Brix! It's a step up from Cerebral Caustic and has surprisingly good cover art for a Fall album. Under appreciated.

should have responded to your comments at the time NV, apologies, since a comment you made on the another thread has been pretty much the single prism through which i've been thinking about the fall since you made it. and i'm not sure i'm quite in a position to do so right now because a bit pissed, but yes, agreed and agreed and agreed.

but first – just read Ian Penman's v good Beach Boy's essay in the most recent LRB, and it reminded me how good the late-ish Fall song Mike's Love Xexagon is (both versions actually, extremely differently good). 'The thoughts came thick and fast – satanic meditations, shadow emissions' is a great line, bringing together the unheimlich Fall with the supernal auditory fever of Brian Wilson. More to the point, it's Smith's amazing knack for the dramatic, so that 'When I died!' becomes the gateway for substance of the song. As in so many other Fall lyrics, death is only the beginning of what's really going in the world, death is only the beginning of life, and artists (like Brian Wilson) *get* this. Another great late example would be Serum, which starts with brilliant dramatic flair with 'Help yourself, Dear Barlow, as long as you got... serum.' which inevitably ends up with the deadly line '...and the serum... never came'. Just wonderful.

so, agreed and agreed and agreed, but.

Took a break from the Fall Trawl ("This Morning" is not covering my Fall Marathon, but hey...) but am back on the trail.

"Light User Syndrome" i like a lot, probably helped by "Chiselers" being a wild ride and as unexpected as "Living too late" was back then.

"Levitate" seemed to me where the tech obscured rather than augmented.

So, went "Marshall Suite", dug out from the recesses of the collection, and whoa! "Side 1" really comes out flying, side 2 breaks down, very texture. Side 3 has a flaw, apparently they used a "remix" for Crying Marshal instead of the original, to Mark E's annoyance and anger. So, am gonna go Spotify "the real fall Side 3". (Clarity: I have the cd not the 2lp).

Anyway, before "Marshall Suite" came out was the famous big bust up in NY, so the next album is gonna be the Ark album "Brainsold"....

how is this not "Lost In Music"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8WAWKyOYcE

Heard a voice say get up and it brought me down

Just played "Brainsold" by Ark.

Except for "In my life", bloody awful.

Ok, "Unutterable" next.....

Unutterable is one my top 00's Fall albums

"Pumpkin soup and mashed potatoes/that's why I am always clean"

It's highly regarded, and possibly because of deals with murky record labels was difficult to find for ages.